No, they don’t. Its actually described. Distrowatch just tracks how many clicks the pages on Distrowatch has. That’s all. But lot of people don’t understand and take these numbers as general popularity index.

And on DistroWatch (last 30 days) its still place 16, just above NixOS. :D Shows again why DistroWatch shouldn’t be used as a generalized popularity comparison: https://distrowatch.com/index.php?dataspan=4 (Note the link will have different data after time goes on.)

Last 30 days on Dec. 4, 2025:

Rank    Distribution        HPD*
---------------------------------
1       CachyOS             4695>
2       MX Linux            2460<
3       Mint                2325>
4       Debian              1611<
5       EndeavourOS         1536>
6       Zorin               1420>
7       Pop!_OS             1316>
8       Fedora              1080<
9       Ubuntu              1061<
10      Manjaro             1045=
11      AnduinOS            914>
12      Arch                853<
13      openSUSE            729<
14      antiX               726<
15      Nobara              714>
16      Bazzite             692=
17      NixOS               647>

How is it bloated if you decide what to put on? Gentoo isn’t a traditional distribution, its what you make it to. Still you have to answer for yourself why you even want to switch to Gentoo. And if all the extra work for compilation is worth it. Do you even want to compile everything and customize the compilation process? If not, maybe Gentoo is not for you. That’s the thing. Only you can answer that.

Why do you want switch to Gentoo in the first place? I think its a good idea if you want to customize and build lot of applications yourself. Besides heavy hitters like browsers or the Kernel. So only you can answer if this is a good idea for you.

Linux is not a lifestyle

I have to disagree about this point.

I’d love to some of the Bazzite users migrate to Bluefin or Aurora.

Why?

When do you need a newer or older version of Bash to target? I mean usually this is not a thing to concern about.

I want to say, it takes a while to learn many stuff in Linux. You didn’t learn everything of Windows in one video or blog post either. And in Linux, its even “worse”, as it is open ended with many operating systems and replaceable parts. That means its by design more to learn than on Windows. I’m just setting expectations. “Learning Linux” is not a single event or product you learn, and you hopefully never stop learning.

1. Maybe start at high level “What is Linux?”.
2. Go into “The Linux Filesystem”.
3. Learn about “Linux Philosophy and Shell Tools”.
4. That should lead you into scripting with “Bash”.

That should give you a bit of background and basics to start with. Just search these terms and start learning and experimenting. Plan years into learning…

This question is probably as old as Linux itself. While many (me included) do not like Ubuntu anymore, I still think its a good operating system for newcomers to Linux. Not at last because of the community it has. Ubuntu is only by those dislike who are long enough in this game. There are also different variants with different user interfaces and such (like Kubuntu).

Definitely not like OUR (in the sense of owning from community perspective). No seriously, I pronounce it like most do and say each letter on their own like a pirate.

Like a pirate.

Instead installing older version that is either unsecure, or can cause dependency problems, I rather install Flatpak: https://flathub.org/en/apps/one.ablaze.floorp

TL;DR: Basically gaming compatibility and additional complications, on top of all what is new due to Linux.

I have a brother trying to convince him to use Linux over Windows (or at least dual boot). I could make him use Manjaro (back then when I was using Manjaro myself) on a laptop. That was his first experience and he is a gamer who likes multiplayer games. So the experience was a bit mixed. Later I borrowed him my Steam Deck for 2 weeks and it was a torture to myself, as it was the launch period of the hardware. And then I convinced him to buy Steam Deck instead a laptop.

He still loves the Steam Deck and uses it here and there, especially on vacation. But as lot of primary multiplayer games he play do not work on Linux and because of complications with some non Steam games and lot of applications he had, such as Discord, he went back to Windows on his new PC. Some complications arised because of the Steam Deck and its limitations, but that did not change the fact how games he plays are not working.

But he admits that SteamOS is the better operating system. And he understands why it is what it is, but as said, that does not change the fact he cannot play some of his favorite games on Linux. But that is not all. You have to understand that newcomers who experience LInux for the first time, and switched reluctant without research, don’t know what Wayland is, don’t know differences between desktop environments and has to deal with compatibility layers on top of all other new Linux stuff for them.

Why your sister felt she has less control is just a feeling, because she know less, therefore can control less. It makes sense from her perspective, so I would not say its entirely wrong.

Honestly, I am grateful that the FSF is a bit more strict in this definition. While I do not care too much about this, I think it is good that we have some ideal to follow and look forward. And its good, because anyone who wants to go that route, have a community and direction.

Agree to fully switch to a 100% free os? No. I need the nvidia driver.

Well, there is an Open Source Nvidia driver nowadays (not talking about Nouveau, but the new Nova). I don’t know how good it is and my old Nvidia 1070 card is not supported by Nova. So cannot do any comparisons sadly. I think in the future Open Source Nvidia drivers could be in a similar spot as AMD.

Calling a “regular” Linux desktop operating system being Black boxed or closed source is a bit too far in my opinion. I do not agree 100%, but I understand the concerns and points brought up in this discussion.

For that I would rather recommend a terminal browser like lynx, w3m or links2 in example. curl is more like a single web request to download one piece of raw file (an html page or an image in example). It is not meant to interpret websites and display results. If you want save webpages for offline view, then something like wget.

If no password is needed to do authentication, then any script and any user is able to do whatever they want on your system. Basically every script and application has root access by default. That is something you do not want to have. Even more important in multiuser environments.

Looks like one of the better tutorial / documentation series in a blog I have seen a while for Bash. Most are short and shallow. I think this is NOT an Ai slop. I won’t read it, because I know most of the basic stuff and some advanced stuff too. But from quick look I could recommend this. Well done.

Right, I completely forgot about “Super”. It might even be the more common term.